etta166

It is also worth bearing in mind that it is higher risk to give birth at home than in hospital for your first child (not subsequent deliveries, if you are low risk and the first delivery was without complications) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15861280 If you are happy to take this marginal increase in risk to have a home birth, then this area is a really good place to do it. There is lots of support for home births and the systems in place to support home births are well established and reliable. I've had 3 births at home, twice with the King's community midwives and once with the Brierly. Both of the first two didn't go according to plan and I had only one midwife at home with me rather than two, and my husband actually delivered our baby on the second home birth because the midwife wasn't in the room at the time. So even if you do opt for a home birth, things can stil go awry in terms of the support that you get.

Don't get your hopes up about taking themselves to the loo at night... My daughters still don't even though they've been out of nappies and in beds for over a year. I guess it's just too scary getting up in the dark.

My daughter, now almost 5, has just successfully stopped sucking her thumb with the help of a thumbsie (well, 2 actually). The key thing is that your child has to want to stop, or nothing will work. All methods need them to cooperate. Star charts and a final reward worked for us, but my son is unmoved by these sort of incentives, so you would need to work out what motivates your child. In the end, it was much easier than we were expecting it to be. mimosa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks Undiscovered. Thumb guard solutions seem to > have a lot of positive comments. > > How did people persuade their kids to wear it? Did > you get them involved at the point of purchase, > reward charts...? > > My concern is that it's quite expensive (though a > good price if it works!). I can just imagine my > daughter refusing point blank to wear it. > > Also, there seem to be a few versions on the > market. There's: > > http://www.thumbguard.co.uk/ > > And some cheaper variants of that on ebay. > > Then there are versions of this kind of colourful > thumb glove: > > http://thumbsie.co.uk/?gclid=CJD77fXQiMsCFa0V0wodT > 70JyA > > Which did people use?

We had a twin techno and it was awful to push. Super heavy and unwieldy. It does fold small though. The double city jogger mini seems more user-friendly.

Roger Pope in Dulwich village. There's been another thread on this recently that my have more recommendations too.

Get underfloor heating if you can. We didn't because of the cost, but I regret it now. Especially in the winter...

In my experience, it's another word for playgroup.

If you have time to read, then Easier, Happier, Calmer Parenting is very useful though obviously not a cure-all. Entertainingly, my 6 year old found our copy tonight and very seriously told me that he didn't think his Dad (my husband) had read it yet!

> Swimming with all three becomes > impossible for a while (wrong ratio of adults to > kids under whatever-age-it-is). Just in case this would be the deciding factor, you can take 3 children under 8 into any Wandsworth pool with 1 adult. Whether you can get them all to Wandsworth is another matter...

Second vote for the Touran, and also like devsdev we have three ERF seats across the middle row. It's actually more about the car seats than the car, as you can get 3 ERF seats across the back of a large number of different cars. There's a whole Facebook group dedicated to car/car seat advice at https://www.facebook.com/groups/289434267864378/?ref=ts&fref=ts that is really helpful.

The opticians in Dulwich Village is great with kids glasses (and more generally with kids eye tests too). I'd recommend them for older children, but no direct experience with toddlers. From my own personal glasses-wearing experience of over 25 years, the specsavers/vison express type places are not good with fitting glasses well, nor do they tend to stock as good quality frames as independent opticians.

wellington Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > etta166 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > The view on the safety of car seats with impact > > shields may well have changed since you bought > > yours. In Downing my research in HHBs for my > > eldest, I cam across this report, which is a > bit > > worrying > > > > > http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2014/ > > > wp29grsp/GRSP-55-39e.pdf > > > > The Maxi-Cosi Rodi looks good, so does the > Britax > > KidFix XP and the Izi Up X3. Does anyone have > any > > views of those seats? > > It looks like the impact shield seats used in this > test were only tested up to 3 year olds. I'm not > sure if there are any seats that have harness for > those over 18kg and so the children must be > secured using the seat belt. There are lots of rear facing seats that use a harness up to 25kg, and two by Britax that are forward facing and can be used with a harness up to 25kg (the Advansafix and the Two Way Elite). I'm looking for a booster seat for my eldest, who has pretty much outgrown his rear facing seat at almost 7 years old and pretty close to 25kg too.

The view on the safety of car seats with impact shields may well have changed since you bought yours. In doing my research in HHBs for my eldest, I came across this report, which is a bit worrying http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2014/wp29grsp/GRSP-55-39e.pdf The Maxi-Cosi Rodi looks good, so does the Britax KidFix XP and the Izi Up X3. Does anyone have any views of those seats?

Following with interest. Which HHB seats do you recommend? I'm about to get one for my almost 7 year old who has out-grown his rear-facing seat.

You will be seen at Kings, who have a great team. But if you want extra, you can often see the same physio privately too.

Around 12-13.50 net per hour is the going rate for a nanny share and, like others have said, it is essential that you agree a gross salary with your nanny for everyone's sake.

There's a Facebook group called Car Seat Advice for Mummies and Daddies at https://www.facebook.com/groups/289434267864378/?fref=ts which has several Admins who are experts on this subject. They will be able to help you identify the safe combinations for cars and car seats for your specific children. There's also a local company called Rear Facing Toddlers run by Margaret Bolt who is an expert in the field. Well worth getting in touch with one of them for advice.

Leasing seems like a good option. Another possibility is to change car seats, as it is possible to get three across many "normal" cars if you use extended rear facing seats. We have a Touran, which is pretty much like a saloon car to drive but is a small mpv. It's great if you have 3 children to fit in. Putting a 7 year old in the front is not a very safe option. I can look up studies later if you like, but in general it is not recommended for children under 12 or under 135cm.

I have recently done it myself, and it's actually very easy. I just had to do an online questionnaire and email/post copies of documents. I can't recall the name of the company but I guess they are all pretty similar. And my circumstances are not straight-forward as I use two names (professionally I kept my maiden name, and my forename has different versions) and I am not British. All still came through within a few weeks.

If you're after a second hand bike, there's going to be a Peddle My Wheels bike market on 6th December at Bessemer Grange Primary School from 12-3. It's a fantastic place to buy a used bike, which will have been serviced by a mechanic on the day so you can be assured that it is fully functional and safe. There will be second hand Frog and Islabikes there.

There are 2 junior schools in Southwark that start at year 3. You can apply for them online now.

Bear in mind that your appointments may differ because of the risk factors. For example, on my 2nd and 3rd pregnancies I had a scan every 2 weeks from 23 weeks (yes it was a massive pain in the butt), but saw a midwife only at 28wks, 32wks and 36wks before giving birth at 37+, so before the 38, 40 and 41wk appointments.

If you don't need full days, then Halfmoon Montessori is fantastic. It is school hours and term time only, though.

I find the choice of Michael Jackson a bit disturbing, but obviously my son is oblivious to the connotations...

No. My kids will be going as Michael Jackson, a minion and a princess. It's very variable. The best costume we saw last year was a jellyfish.